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  • More Turkish Free Speech Hypocrisy

    MORE TURKISH FREE SPEECH HYPOCRISY
    by Michael Rubin

    Commentary Magazine
    http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/02/07/turkish-free-speech-hypocrisy/
    Feb 7 2012

    The Swiss government has started an inquiry into a statement by Egemen
    Bag覺癬_, Turkey's minister for European Union affairs, in which
    Bag覺癬_ stated that the Armenians suffered no genocide. According to
    a report in the Turkish press, Bag覺癬_ said, "There is no Armenian
    genocide. Let them arrest me." Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag
    commented on the incident, "Can't a minister of a country express
    his views speaking in another country? It's ridiculous."

    While I'm not in favor of laws restricting the speech, no matter how
    wrong the speaker, Bag覺癬_ and Bozdag's stand is rich considering
    that Bag覺癬_ - with the apparent blessing of Namik Tan, the Turkish
    ambassador in Washington - tried to sue me into silence after I wrote
    a series of articles criticizing Turkish government policies. Turkish
    officials believe in free speech for themselves, but seek to censor
    when speech is used to challenge their ideas.

    The reality today is that, despite Bag覺癬_ and Tan's best efforts,
    the only place Turks or Turkish analysts enjoy free speech is outside
    of Turkey. Hence, as Jonathan noted yesterday, in order to defend
    free speech, Kemal K覺l覺cdaroglu, the chairman of the Republican
    Peoples Party, the largest secular party in Turkey, took to the pages
    of The Washington Post rather than a Turkish outlet. As K覺l覺cdaroglu
    explained:

    Turkey today is a country where people live in fear and are divided
    politically, economically and socially. Our democracy is regressing
    in terms of the separation of powers, basic human rights and freedoms
    and social development and justice. Citizens worry deeply about their
    future. These points are, sadly, reflected in most major international
    indexes, such as Human Rights Watch, which rank Turkey quite low in
    terms of human rights, democracy, freedoms and equality.

    Just as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton embarrassed herself by
    labeling Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad a reformer, President Obama
    embarrasses himself by calling Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
    a friend. Should Obama and Clinton embrace Turkey as a model for
    the Arab Spring, then he is condemning another generation of Arabs
    to repression.



    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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